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Artemis 2 crew members, from left, Mission Spc. Jeremy Hansen, of Canada, Mission Spc. Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover pose for a photo after the crew’s arrival at the Kennedy Space Center Friday, March 27, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.<\/p>\n
Chris O’Meara\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, left, answers questions during a news conference, next to the crew of the new moon rocket, Artemis II, from left, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover and commander Reid Wiseman at the Kennedy Space Center, Jan. 17, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.<\/p>\n
John Raoux\/AP<\/p>\n
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft set for the Artemis 2 mission is seen on Launch Complex 39B at sunrise at the Kennedy Space Center, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.<\/p>\n
John Raoux\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) moon rocket with the Orion spacecraft slowly rolls back towards the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Feb. 25, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo\/John Raoux, File<\/p>\n
John Raoux\/AP<\/p>\n
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The four astronauts making NASA\u2019s next lunar leap bear little resemblance to the Apollo era.<\/p>\n
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The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience. This first Artemis crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian, products of a more diversified astronaut corps.<\/p>\n
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None of them were alive during NASA\u2019s storied Apollo program that sent 24 astronauts to the moon including 12 moonwalkers. They won\u2019t land on the moon this time or even orbit it, but the out-and-back journey will take them thousands of miles deeper into space than even the Apollo astronauts ventured, promising unprecedented views of the lunar far side.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the Artemis astronauts whose mission aims to pave the path for future moon landings:<\/p>\n
Commander Reid Wiseman<\/p>\n
Leading the nearly 10-day mission is a widower who considers solo parenting \u2014 not rocketing to the moon \u2014 his biggest and most rewarding challenge.<\/p>\n
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Wiseman, 50, a retired Navy captain from Baltimore, was serving as NASA\u2019s chief astronaut when asked three years ago to lead humanity\u2019s first lunar trip since 1972. His wife Carroll\u2019s death from cancer in 2020 gave him pause.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d spent more than five months at the International Space Station in 2014, and his two teenage daughters, especially the older one, had \u201czero interest\u201d in him launching again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about it and I said, \u2018Look, of all the people on planet Earth right now, there are four people that are in a position to go fly around the moon,\u201d he said. \u201cI cannot say no to that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The next day, homemade moon cupcakes awaited him, along with his daughters’ support. The toughest part isn\u2019t leaving them \u2014 \u201cit’s the stress that I\u2019m putting on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Open with his daughters about everything, he recently told them where he keeps his will.<\/p>\n
Pilot Victor Glover<\/p>\n
As one of NASA\u2019s few Black astronauts, Glover sees his presence on the mission as \u201ca force for good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The 49-year-old Navy captain and former combat pilot from Pomona, California, makes it a habit to listen to Gil Scott-Heron\u2019s \u201cWhitey on the Moon\u201d and Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u201cMake Me Wanna Holler\u201d from the white-dominated Apollo era.<\/p>\n
\u201cI listen to those for perspective,\u201d he said. \u201cIt captures what we did well, what we did poorly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ability for him now to offer hope to others is \u201can amazing blessing and a privilege.\u201d Despite having one spaceflight behind him \u2014 an early SpaceX crew run to the International Space Station \u2014 he finds himself in new personal territory. His four daughters are in their late teens and early 20s, \u201cand I spend as an much time and thought preparing them as NASA does preparing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s hyper-focused on running \u201cour best race so that we can hand the baton off to the next leg\u201d \u2014 a 2027 practice docking mission in orbit around Earth between an Orion crew capsule and one or two lunar landers. The all-important moon landing would follow in 2028 with yet another set of astronauts.<\/p>\n
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Mission specialist Christina Koch<\/p>\n
The last time Koch blasted into space, she was gone almost a year, so she\u2019s not sweating a quick trip to the moon and back.<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old electrical engineer from Jacksonville, North Carolina, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman \u2014 328 days. She took part in the first all-female spacewalk during her lengthy stay at the space station in 2019.<\/p>\n
More than any one individual, \u201cit\u2019s about celebrating the fact that we\u2019ve arrived to this place in history\u201d where women can fly to the moon, she said.<\/p>\n
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Before she got called up by NASA, Koch spent a year at a South Pole research station. Between that and her space stint, she feels she’s \u201cinoculated\u201d most of her family and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, I haven’t gotten too many nerves from folks. Maybe my dog, but I’ve reassured her that it’s only 10 days. It’s not going to be as long as last time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her and her husband’s rescue pooch is named Sadie Lou.<\/p>\n
Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen<\/p>\n
The Canadian fighter pilot and physicist is making his space debut, stressful enough, but also serving as his country’s first emissary to the moon.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMaybe I’m naive, but I don’t feel a lot of personal pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen, 50, grew up on a farm near London, Ontario, before moving to Ingersoll and pursuing a flying career. The Canadian Space Agency selected him as an astronaut in 2009, and he was named to the Artemis crew in 2023.<\/p>\n
He realizes only now how much effort it took to send men to the moon during Apollo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I walk out and I look at the moon now, it looks and feels a little bit farther than it used to be,\u201d he said. \u201cI just understand in the details how much harder it is than I thought it was watching videos of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dangers still loom \u2014 something he\u2019s shared with his college-aged son and twin daughters. \u201cThe most likely outcome is that we will come back safe. There\u2019s a chance we won\u2019t, and you will be able to move through life even if that happens,\u201d he assured them.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artemis 2 crew members, from left, Mission Spc. Jeremy Hansen, of Canada, Mission Spc. Christina Koch, Commander Reid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28977,68622,87202,87200,23681,59373,86083,87204,86691,87203,59371,59372,87205,61262,87201,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-224548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-baltimore","tag-gil-scott-heron","tag-marvin-gaye","tag-nasa-moon-artemis-crew","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30031-ap-california-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30037-ap-delaware-maryland-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30039-ap-florida-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30087-ap-north-carolina-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32539-ap-online-science-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-sadie-lou","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}